System and method of controlling in-bound path selection based on historical and continuous path quality monitoring, assessment and predictions

ABSTRACT

A system and method of automatically controlling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to a second communications peer based on an input from a historical path quality assessment and prediction system is disclosed. The second communications peer receives an input from the historical path quality assessment and prediction system, selects a path through a relay based on the received input, requests allocation of the relay, and sends an address of the selected relay to the first communications peer. The system and method works in concert with an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, or takes advantage of the features of the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism.

FIELD OF DISCLOSURE

The present invention provides a system and method of controllingin-bound traffic from one communications peer to another communicationspeer. More particularly, the present invention provides a system andmethod of controlling in-bound path selection from a firstcommunications peer to a second communications peer based on an inputfrom a historical path quality assessment and prediction system.

BACKGROUND

Conventional solutions for path selection based on path qualitymonitoring, assessment, and prediction, such as the Converged NetworkAnalyzer (CNA), address the problem of path selection for limitedmulti-homing topologies, and only control outbound traffic.

Other conventional solutions for such path selection, which use relaysto address more complex network topologies, rely on overlay networkswith tunneling techniques or with static provisioning of state in therelays, or on diverting the signaling path in order to effect a changein the media session path, or on a central application controlling thewhole network.

Conventional solutions are described in multiple research publicationsin the area of path quality, including, for example, “Path Switching andCall Protection for Reliable IP Telephony”, B. Karacali1, M. Karol2, P.Krishnan1, J. Meloche1 and Y. Shen, Avaya Labs Report ALR-2006-038,“Measurement Techniques in On-Demand Overlays for Reliable Enterprise IPTelephony”, B. Karacali, M. Karol, P. Krishnan, K. Kumar, and J.Meloche, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference onCommunications (ICC), 2006, “Improving VoIP Quality Through PathSwitching”, S. Tao, K. Xu, A. Estepa, T. Fei, L. Gao, R. Guerin, J.Kurose, D. Towsley, and Z.-L. Zhang, in Proc. INFOCOM, 2005, which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Other conventional systems, which are no longer available, haveattempted to provide dynamic re-routing of traffic to avoid congestion(http://www.venturetdf.com/new/doc/news-kagoor.htm).

Different conventional solutions describe methods of establishingconnectivity through relays. For example, the future-standard TraversalUsing Relays around NAT (TURN) allows a communications host to controlthe operation of a relay and to exchange packets with its peers usingthe relay. TURN is described in “Traversal Using Relays around NAT(TURN): Relay Extensions to Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN)”,http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-behave-turn-08, J. Rosenberg, Jun.24, 2008, Internet Draft (work in progress, intended to become an IETFStandard), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The TURN protocol can be used in isolation, or can be used as part ofthe future-standard Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)mechanism that provides connectivity checks via multiple differentpaths, and that is designed to verify and establish connectivity throughNetwork Address Translation (NAT). ICE will likely be an importantstandard in the area of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)communications. ICE is described in “Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE): A Protocol for Network Address Translator (NAT)Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols”, J. Rosenberg, Oct. 27, 2007,Internet Draft (work in progress, intended to become an IETF Standard),http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-mmusic-ice-19, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

ICE provides for connectivity checks at the current moment in time(e.g., at session set-up time) in order to verify and establishconnectivity. ICE can provide for measuring the current round trip time(i.e., the current delay) as an optimization on top of verifyingconnectivity. The ICE standard does not, however, provide robustassessments or measurements of path quality.

SUMMARY

Some conventional systems provide path selection based on path qualitymonitoring and assessment, for limited multi-homing topologies. However,these conventional solutions only control outbound traffic and do notcontrol in-bound traffic. That is, these conventional systems fail toaddress or even contemplate controlling in-bound path selection. Theseconventional systems do not dynamically establish and control in-boundtraffic to a communications peer from another communications peer.

In stark contrast, other conventional systems have been provided forcontrolling in-bound traffic, but these conventional systems do not takeinto account any historical, timeframe, continuous data, information, ormeasurements regarding path quality in the path selection decisionmaking process. That is, these conventional systems do not take intoaccount historical path quality monitoring, assessments, and/orpredictions in the decision-making process in controlling in-boundtraffic.

The present invention recognizes that there is a need for acommunications peer to control in-bound traffic from anothercommunications peer while also taking into account historical pathquality monitoring, assessments, and/or predictions in thedecision-making process in controlling the path selection of thein-bound traffic. The present invention recognizes that controllingin-bound traffic while taking into account path quality assessments ismuch more difficult and has not been addressed by the conventionalsolutions up to this point.

To solve the aforementioned problems with the conventional art, thepresent invention provides a system and method of controlling in-boundtraffic from one communications peer to another communications peer.More particularly, the present invention provides a system and method ofcontrolling in-bound path selection from a first communications peer toa second communications peer based on an input from a historical pathquality assessment and prediction system.

The exemplary features of the invention provide a simple solution to theproblem described above of affecting the media path of inbound trafficwhile taking into account path quality assessments. The presentinvention provides an important advantage of automatically setting uppaths through relays and forcing the in-bound traffic to acommunications peer to take a selected path, such as a preferred path,based on robust historical and continuous path quality monitoring,assessments, and predictions.

In an embodiment, the present invention takes advantage of TraversalUsing Relays around NAT (TURN) relays (or servers) to provide a simplesolution to the problem described above of affecting the media path ofinbound traffic. According to these exemplary aspects, an offerer (i.e.,second communications peer) receives an input from a historical andcontinuous path quality monitoring, assessment, and prediction system,requests allocation of a relay (e.g., allocation of a TURN server), andthen sends the selected address (e.g., TURN address) to the other side(i.e., first communications peer).

For example, an embodiment of the invention provides a method ofautomatically controlling in-bound traffic from a first communicationspeer to a second communications peer based on an input from a historicalpath quality assessment and prediction system. The method includesreceiving, by the second communications peer, the input from thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system, and selectinga path through a relay based on the received input. The method furtherincludes requesting, by the second communications peer, allocation ofthe relay, and sending, by the second communications peer, an address ofthe selected relay to the first communications peer.

The present invention also provides a system for automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic between communications peers. The systemincludes a first communications peer, a second communications peer, anda historical path quality assessment and prediction system. The secondcommunications peer automatically controls in-bound traffic from thefirst communications peer to the second communications peer based on aninput from the historical path quality assessment and prediction system.

In another embodiment of the invention, a path quality assessmentsystem, which makes an inbound path selection based on historical pathquality assessments, can be leveraged to coexist and/or work in concertwith an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) exchange. Theembodiment provides path quality assessment based on much richer anddeeper information than simple connectivity and round trip time checks.

For example, another embodiment provides a method of automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to asecond communications peer based on an input received from a historicalpath quality assessment and prediction system. The method includesautomatically setting-up, by the second communications peer, one or morerelays, sending, by the second communications peer, to the firstcommunications peer, a transport address of the one or more relays andone or more local addresses for direct communications, per anInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, nominating, bythe second communications peer, a candidate pair based on the inputreceived from the historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem, and indicating, by the second communications peer, the nominatedcandidate pair with a flag using the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism.

The present invention also provides a system for automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic between communications peers based on aninput received from a historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem. The system includes a first communications peer, a secondcommunications peer, and a historical path quality assessment andprediction system. The second communications peer automatically sets-upone or more relays and sends to the first communications peer atransport address of the one or more relays and one or more localaddresses for direct communications, per an Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism. The second communications peer nominatesa candidate pair based on the input received from the historical pathquality assessment and prediction system and indicates the nominatedcandidate pair with a flag using the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism.

The embodiments of the invention can coexist or work in concert with thefeatures of the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) and theTURN/STUN-Relay component of ICE, for example, which are being used forthe purposes for which these features are intended or designed, oralternatively, for other purposes.

For example, an embodiment takes advantage of the features of theInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) and the TURN/STUN-Relaycomponent of ICE for purposes that are different than the purposes forwhich these features are intended or designed, in order to dynamicallyestablish connectivity through relays when performing path selectionbetween multiple possible paths based on historical and continuous pathquality monitoring, assessment, and predictions.

An embodiment takes advantage of, and makes use of, the features of theinteraction in ICE to provide improvements in path quality assessment.The embodiments can be applied to multiple relays representing differentpaths through the network even if the ICE mechanisms would not otherwisebe applied to these relays for the other purposes that ICE is used for,and ICE can be used for this purpose even if there is no need totraverse network address translations (NAT's) or any other need to useICE.

An embodiment can provide, for example, a hub and spoke system ofcommunications peers and relays in which the path quality assessment ofeach side of the communication only is performed between each respectivecommunications peer and the relay. This embodiment can provide anadvantage with respect to scaling by reducing the number of connectionsand measurements needed, for example, from O(n²) to O(n).

Other aspects of the invention can take advantage of the InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism (and its TURN/STUN-Relaycomponent) for the purpose of dynamically establishing connectivitythrough relays as part of a path selection solution based on pathquality assessment and which is performed—either pre-call or mid-call.The features of the invention allow the incorporation of path selectionand path quality assessment into the architecture of IP communicationssolutions based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SessionDescription Protocol (SDP) without requiring changes to the solutionarchitecture.

For example, yet another embodiment provides a method of automaticallycontrolling traffic between a first communications peer to a secondcommunications peer. The method includes separately performing pathquality assessments for one or more portions of the path, concatenatingthe path quality assessments, wherein the path quality assessmentsinclude one or more quality metrics that are indicated in an InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, and making a path selectiondecision based on the concatenated path quality assessments.

The present invention also provides a system for automaticallycontrolling traffic between communications peers. The system includes afirst communications peer, a first historical path quality assessmentand prediction system that performs path quality assessments for a firstportion of one or more paths, a second communications peer, and a secondhistorical path quality assessment and prediction system that performspath quality assessments for a second portion of the one or more paths.The second communications peer concatenates the path qualityassessments. The path quality assessments include one or more qualitymetrics that are indicated in an Interactive Connectivity Establishment(ICE) mechanism. The second communications peer makes a path selectiondecision based on the concatenated path quality assessments.

The exemplary aspects of the present invention provide advantages overthe conventional systems and methods, such as improving scale andflexibility and simplifying the operation of path selection and pathquality assessment solutions. The features of the invention provide anadvantage of allowing incorporation of path selection based on pathquality assessments for quality optimization into the architecture of IPcommunications solutions based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)signaling, such as voice over IP (VoIP) and video over IP, and SessionDescription Protocol (SDP) without requiring changes to the solutionarchitecture, such as using overlay networks, tunneling andencapsulation, which can be costly from an operations-perspective. Forexample, the features of the invention can provide quality-improvementfeatures through path selection solution based on path qualityassessments to IP communications devices such as P2P-SIP IP phones, andto additional types of IP endpoints, gateways, Session BorderControllers (SBC), Media Servers and other devices.

A complete understanding of the present invention, as well as furtherfeatures and advantages of the present invention, will be obtained byreference to the following detailed description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the description ofembodiments of the invention and are provided solely for illustration ofthe embodiments and not limitation thereof.

FIG. 1 depicts a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a method according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a method according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 depicts a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 depicts a method according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the invention are disclosed in the following description andrelated drawings directed to specific embodiments of the invention.Alternate embodiments may be devised without departing from the scope ofthe invention. Additionally, well-known elements of the invention willnot be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure therelevant details of the invention.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. Likewise, the term “embodiments ofthe invention” does not require that all embodiments of the inventioninclude the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.

Further, many embodiments are described in terms of sequences of actionsto be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It willbe recognized that various actions described herein can be preformed byspecific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits(ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or moreprocessors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, these sequence ofactions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirelywithin any form of computer readable storage medium having storedtherein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon executionwould cause an associated processor to perform the functionalitydescribed herein. Thus, the various aspects of the invention may beembodied in a number of different forms, all of which have beencontemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Inaddition, for each of the embodiments described herein, thecorresponding form of any such embodiments may be described herein as,for example, “logic configured to” perform the described action.

To solve the aforementioned problems with the conventional art, thepresent invention provides a system and method of controlling in-boundtraffic from one communications peer to another communications peer.More particularly, the present invention provides a system and method ofcontrolling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to asecond communications peer based on an input from a historical pathquality assessment and prediction system.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be described withreference to FIGS. 1-6.

With reference to FIG. 1, a method and system for automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to asecond communications peer, according to an embodiment, will now bedescribed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment includes a first communications peer10 and a second communications peer 12. The first communications peer 10and the second communications peer 12 can communicate with each otherthrough one or more paths. For example, the first communications peer 10and the second communications peer 12 can communicate with each otherthrough a direct path D1. The first communications peer 10 and thesecond communications peer 12 also can communicate with each other usingpaths through, for example, a relay R1, R2, etc. One or more of therelays R1, R2, etc. can be, for example, a TURN (Traversal Using Relaysaround NAT) server. Any number of communications peers and relays can beprovided, and the system is not limited to first and secondcommunications peers 10, 12 or relays R1, R2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment includes a historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 26, which can be running, for example,on the second communications peer 12 or on a separate system interactingor communicating with the second communications peer 12. According toembodiments of the invention, the second communications peer 12automatically controls in-bound traffic from the first communicationspeer 10 to the second communications peer 12 based on an input from thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system 26.

Exemplary aspects of the historical path quality assessment andprediction system 26 will now be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the quality of the paths between the firstcommunications peer 10 and the second communications peers 12 throughone or more relays R1 and R2 are indicated by a path quality Q1 and Q2,respectively. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that thedirect path D1 between the first communications peer 10 and the secondcommunications peer 12 also has a quality Qd. The historical pathquality assessment and prediction system 26 can provide, for example,historical path quality monitoring, assessments, and predictions forpath qualities Q1, Q2, etc. The path quality monitoring, assessments,and predictions can be, for example, continuous, substantiallycontinuous, or intermittent. For example, the historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 26 may be configured to continuouslymonitor traffic along a given path. If the traffic along the pathpauses, then the monitoring correspondingly pauses.

The input received from the historical path quality assessment andprediction system 26 can be derived from one or more of historicalmeasurements, policy, assessments, and selection algorithms. These caninclude one or more of historical perspectives, measurements taken overa period of time, or continuous measurements from a point in time to thepresent time, among other things.

The historical path quality assessment and prediction system 26 providesan important advantage of looking at past information to obtain a betterunderstanding of the quality Q1, Q2 of the available paths. Thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system 26 takes intoaccount historical perspectives, such as historical measurements,monitoring, and/or whatever indications or information is available withrespect to the path quality that have been taken over time, instead ofsimply looking at the current point in time and performing simpleconnectivity and round trip time checks.

For example, embodiments of the historical path quality assessment andprediction system 26 can take into account continuous, longer term(e.g., over several minutes or longer) monitoring/measuring of the pathquality. The historical path quality assessment and prediction system 26can measure the path quality (e.g., quality of traffic) continuouslyover time or over periods of time (e.g., long term), taking into accountsuch things as packet loss, percentage of packet loss over time, delayand jitter (i.e., variation of delay) over time, trends, etc., andderive a quality assessment based on this historical or timeframe data.Accordingly, the present invention can provide a better assessmentand/or prediction of the quality of a path or paths, particularly withrespect to important factors such as packet loss.

Moreover, by using this data and assessments, the present invention canprovide a prediction of a future path quality, for example, over thenext few minutes, instead of simply looking at the current point in timeand performing simple connectivity and round trip time checks.

With reference to FIG. 2, a method of automatically controlling in-boundtraffic from a first communications peer 10 to a second communicationspeer 12 based on an input from the historical path quality assessmentand prediction system 26, will now be described.

The exemplary method includes a step of receiving, by the secondcommunications peer 12, an input from the historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 26 (S102). The second communicationspeer 12 selects a path through a relay (e.g., one of relays R1 and R2)based on the received input from the historical path quality assessmentand prediction system 26 (S104). The method further includes requesting,by the second communications peer 12, allocation of the relay (e.g.,selected relay R1) (S106) and sending, by the second communications peer12, an address of the selected relay (e.g., relay R1) to the firstcommunications peer 10 (S108). The second communications peer 12 sendsthe address, for example, in Session Description Protocol (SDP), to thefirst communications peer 10 as part of a SIP signaling exchange. Theaddress can be, for example, an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)address or an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address.

As explained above, the input received from the historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 26 can be derived from one or more ofhistorical measurements, policy, assessments, and selection algorithms.The path quality assessments can be performed, for example, by thesecond communications peer 26 or a system interacting with the secondcommunications peer 26. One or more of the relays (e.g., relays R1, R2,etc) can be, for example, a TURN server.

Another embodiment can include the further steps of receiving, by thesecond communications peer 12, a response from the first communicationspeer 10 and refining the relay selection based on information learnedfrom the response (S110). The learned information can include, forexample, an IP address of the first communications peer 10. In thisembodiment, the second communications peer 12 then sends to the firstcommunications peer 10 one of an update or a re-invite including anaddress of a new selected relay (e.g., relay R2), if the new selectedrelay (e.g., relay R2) is different from the previously selected relay(e.g., relay R1) (S112).

In yet another embodiment, the method automatically controls thein-bound traffic from the first communications peer 10 to the secondcommunications peer 12 pre-call or mid-call. For example, if a change innetwork conditions is determined mid-call, the second communicationspeer 12 repeats the step of selecting (e.g., S104) based on a new inputfrom the historical path quality assessment and prediction system 26 andsends one of an update or a re-invite to the first communications peer10 with another address of a new selected relay (e.g., relay R2), if thenew selected relay (e.g., relay R2) is different from the previouslyselected relay (e.g., relay R1).

According to the above described embodiments, and with reference againto FIGS. 1 and 2, the second communications peer 12 receives an inputfrom a historical path quality monitoring and assessment system, whichis monitoring path quality. The second communications peer 12 then usesthe input from the historical path quality monitoring and assessmentsystem to make a decision or choose which relay (e.g., TURN server) thesecond communications peer 12 prefers to be used for in-coming trafficwithout necessarily knowing who is on the other side of thecommunication. That is, the second communications peer 12 makes aselection on which relay (e.g., R1 or R2) to use prior to any exchangewith another communications peer (e.g., the first communications peer10).

As shown, for example, in FIG. 3, any number of communications peers andrelays can be provided, and the system is not limited to first andsecond communications peers 10, 12 or relays R1, R2. For example, basedon the input from a historical path quality monitoring and assessmentsystem 26, the second communications peer 12 actively can decide that,if in-bound traffic is coming from the first communications peer 10,then the relay R1 should be used. On the other hand, if the in-boundtraffic is coming from a third communications peer 14, then the secondcommunications peer 12 can decide that the relay R2 should be used forin-coming traffic.

In yet another example, the second communications peer 12 actively candecide to use relay R2, irrespective of who is on the other side. Forexample, if the quality of the connection to relay R1 is poor based onthe input from the historical path quality monitoring and assessmentsystem 26, the second communications peer 12 can request allocation ofrelay R2 and then just send the selected address of relay R2 in SDP tothe other side (e.g., to the first communications peer 10 and/or thethird communications peer 14).

With reference to FIGS. 1, 3, and 4, a method and system forautomatically controlling in-bound traffic from a first communicationspeer to a second communications peer, according to an embodiment, willnow be described.

An embodiment of a path quality assessment and prediction system cancoexist and/or work in concert with an Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) exchange. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, anembodiment of a system includes a first communications peer 10, a secondcommunications peer 12, and a historical path quality assessment andprediction system 26. In this embodiment, the second communications peer12 automatically sets-up one or more relays (e.g., relays R1, R2, etc.)and sends, to the first communications peer 10, a transport address ofthe one or more relays and one or more local addresses for directcommunications, per an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)mechanism. The second communications peer 12 then nominates a candidatepair based on the input received from the historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 26 and indicates the nominatedcandidate pair with a flag using the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism.

With reference to FIG. 4, a method of automatically controlling in-boundtraffic from a first communications peer to a second communications peerbased on an input received from a historical path quality assessment andprediction system, according to this embodiment, will now be described.

The exemplary method includes a step of automatically setting-up, by thesecond communications peer 12, one or more relays (e.g., relays R1, R2,etc.) (S202). Next, the method includes a step of sending, by the secondcommunications peer 12 to the first communications peer 10, a transportaddress of the one or more relays and one or more local addresses fordirect communications, per an Interactive Connectivity Establishment(ICE) mechanism (S204). The method further includes nominating, by thesecond communications peer 12, a candidate pair based on the inputreceived from the historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem 26 (S206), and indicating, by the second communications peer 12,the nominated candidate pair with a flag using the InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism (S108).

In another aspect, the method automatically controls the in-boundtraffic from the first communications peer 10 to the secondcommunications peer 12 pre-call or mid-call. For example, if a change innetwork conditions is determined mid-call, the second communicationspeer 12 sends one of an update or a re-invite, which restarts theInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, to the firstcommunications peer 10. The second communications peer 12 then nominatesa new candidate pair based on a new input from the historical pathquality assessment and prediction system 26. The nominated candidatepair may be the same as the previously nominated candidate pair or adifferent candidate pair, depending on the path quality assessments.

In yet another aspect, the method maintains the flow of media betweenthe first communications peer 10 and the second communications peer 12until the different candidate pair is nominated by the InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, and then switches media flowto a new path when the different candidate pair is nominated by theInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism. The switching ofthe media flow to the new path can be seamless. That is, the media keepsflowing on the old path until the new ICE process concludes, at whichtime media flow switches to the new path, potentially seamlessly.

The path quality assessments can be indicated in an InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism. For example, an ICEcandidate priority field can be used to capture the path qualityassessments. As another example, an additional field or alternate fieldcan be added to the ICE exchange to carry the path quality assessment orassessments.

This embodiment may be beneficial for pairing of candidates in abi-directional case, and may provide further advantages if themeasurements take advantage of the fact that the peer knows the multiplecandidates.

With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, a method and system for automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to asecond communications peer, according to an embodiment, will now bedescribed.

In an embodiment, the interaction in the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) can be used to provide improvements in path qualityassessment and predictions. Particularly, the specific mechanisms withinthe Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) exchange can be used toprovide further improvements in path quality assessment and predictions.More particularly, the specific mechanisms within an InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) exchange can be used to indicate thepath quality assessments. In this embodiment, a hub and spoke system ofcommunications peers and relays can be provided in which the pathquality assessment of each side of the communication only is performedbetween each respective communications peer and the relay. Thisarrangement provides an important advantage with respect to scaling byreducing the number of connections and measurements needed, for example,from O(n²) to O(n).

With reference to FIG. 5, the embodiment includes a historical pathquality assessment and prediction system 26, which can be running, forexample, on the second communications peer 12 or on a separate systeminteracting or communicating with the second communications peer 12. Inconjunction, the embodiment includes another historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 28, which can be running, for example,on the first communications peer 10 or on a separate system interactingor communicating with the second communications peer 10.

The exemplary system separately performs path quality assessments forone or more portions of the path, concatenates the path qualityassessments, and makes a path selection decision based on theconcatenated path quality assessments. In an embodiment, the pathquality assessments include one or more quality metrics that areindicated in an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism.In another embodiment, the system selects an Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) candidate pair based on the path selection decision.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the historical path quality assessmentand prediction system 26 performs path quality assessments for a firstportion of one or more paths, while the second historical path qualityassessment and prediction system 28 performs path quality assessmentsfor a second portion of the one or more paths. More particularly, thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system 28 assesses thequality Q1 of the path between the first communications peer 10 and therelay R1, and the quality Q2 of the path between the firstcommunications peer 10 and the relay R2. Similarly, the historical pathquality assessment and prediction system 26 assesses the quality Q3 ofthe path between the second communications peer 12 and the relay R1, andthe quality Q4 of the path between the second communications peer 12 andthe relay R2.

The path quality assessments (e.g., Q1 and Q2) performed by thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system 28 can bereceived by the second communications peer 12 and concatenated with thepath quality assessments (e.g., Q3 and Q4) performed by the historicalpath quality assessment and prediction system 26 to make a pathselection decision based on path quality.

The path quality assessments (e.g., Q1 and Q3, or Q2 and Q4) include oneor more quality metrics that are indicated in an InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism. The second communicationspeer 12 then selects an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)candidate pair based on the path selection decision. For example, thesecond communications peer 12 may select a path through relay R1.

As explained above, each path quality assessment (e.g., Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4,etc.) can include one or more quality metrics, for example, that areindicated in an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism.Moreover, one or more quality metrics provided to the firstcommunications peer 10 by the historical path quality assessment andprediction system 28 can be used by the second communications peer 12 incombination with one or more metrics provided by the historical pathquality assessment and prediction system 26 to the second communicationspeer 12 to make a path selection decision.

For purposes of the present disclosure, a quality metric generally isdefined, for example, as a conclusion regarding the assessed quality ofa path between a communications peer and a relay. The quality metric canbe represented or indicated, for example, by a numeric value or values,or a combination of numeric values. The quality metric also can berepresented or indicated, for example, by a qualitative value or values,or a combination of qualitative values. The quality metric can be acombination of a numeric value(s) and a qualitative value(s).

Examples of numeric values can include, but are not limited to, numbersor combinations of numbers. Examples of qualitative values can include,but are not limited to, letters such as A, B, C, etc., ratings orclassifications such as good, fair, poor, etc., or colors such as white,brown, black, etc. The invention is not limited to the aforementionedexamples and other quality metrics are contemplated by the presentinvention.

The quality metrics can be concatenated, for example, using aconcatenation algorithm. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat the present invention contemplates using various algorithms forconcatenating the quality metrics, including, but in no way limited to,simple actions such as averaging values, summation (e.g., summation ofdelay), etc., as well as more sophisticated calculations using differentoperations or combinations of operations, or different values orcombinations of different values. For example, concatenation algorithmsare contemplated for cases in which the metric or metrics includemultiple values, such as multiple numeric values, multiple qualitativevalues, or combinations thereof.

As explained above, the quality metrics can be indicated in anInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism. For example, anICE candidate priority field can be used to capture a quality metricthat represents a path quality assessment (e.g., Q1 can be indicated inthe R1 candidate priority field sent by the first communications peer 10to the second communications peer 12). As another example, an additionalfield or alternate field can be added to the ICE exchange to carry thequality metric of the path quality assessment.

With reference to FIG. 6, a method of automatically controlling trafficbetween a first communications peer to a second communications peer,will now be described.

The exemplary method includes separately performing path qualityassessments for one or more portions of the path (S302) andconcatenating the path quality assessments, wherein the path qualityassessments include one or more quality metrics that are indicated in anInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism (S304). Next, themethod includes making a path selection decision based on theconcatenated path quality assessments (S306). In another embodiment, themethod further includes selecting an Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) candidate pair based on the path selection decision.

The path quality assessments can be preformed by the secondcommunications peer 12 or a system interacting with the secondcommunications peer 12 for a portion of the path between the secondcommunications peer 12 and the relay. In conjunction, the path qualityassessments can be performed by the first communications peer 10 or asystem interacting with the first communications peer 10 for a portionof the path between the first communications peer 10 and the selectedrelay (e.g. R1).

The exemplary features of the invention provide a simple solution to theproblem described above of affecting the media path of inbound trafficwhile taking into account path quality assessments. The presentinvention provides an important advantage of automatically setting uppaths through relays and forcing the in-bound traffic to acommunications peer to take a predetermined path, such as a preferredpath.

As explained above, the exemplary features of the invention provide asimple solution to the problem described above of affecting the mediapath of inbound traffic while taking into account path qualityassessments. The present invention provides an important advantage ofautomatically setting up paths through relays and forcing the in-boundtraffic to a communications peer to take a selected path, such as apreferred path, based on robust historical and continuous path qualitymonitoring, assessments, and predictions. The exemplary aspects of thepresent invention provide important advantages over the conventionalsystems and methods, such as improving scale and flexibility andsimplifying the operation of path selection and path quality assessmentsolutions. The features of the invention provide an advantage ofallowing incorporation of path selection based on path qualityassessments for quality optimization into the architecture of IPcommunications solutions based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)signaling, such as voice over IP (VoIP) and video over IP, and SessionDescription Protocol (SDP) without requiring changes to the solutionarchitecture, such as using overlay networks, tunneling andencapsulation, which can be costly from an operations-perspective. Forexample, the features of the invention can provide quality-improvementfeatures through path selection solution based on path qualityassessments to IP communications devices such as P2P-SIP IP phones, andto additional types of IP endpoints, gateways, Session BorderControllers (SBC), Media Servers and other devices.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm stepsdescribed in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present invention.

The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection withthe embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware,in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of thetwo. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROMmemory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removabledisk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that theprocessor can read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor.

The invention is not limited to illustrated examples and any means forperforming the functionality described herein are included inembodiments of the invention.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative embodiments of theinvention, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the inventionas defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actionsof the method claims in accordance with the embodiments of the inventiondescribed herein need not be performed in any particular order.Furthermore, although elements of the invention may be described orclaimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation tothe singular is explicitly stated.

1. A method of automatically controlling in-bound traffic from a firstcommunications peer to a second communications peer based on an inputfrom a historical path quality assessment and prediction system, themethod comprising: receiving, by the second communications peer, theinput from the historical path quality assessment and prediction system;selecting a path through a relay based on the received input;requesting, by the second communications peer, allocation of the relay;and sending, by the second communications peer, an address of theselected relay to the first communications peer.
 2. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the input received from the historical path qualityassessment and prediction system is derived from one or more ofhistorical measurements, policy, assessments, and selection algorithms.3. The method according to claim 1, wherein path quality assessments areperformed by one of the second communications peer and a systeminteracting with the second communications peer.
 4. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the second communications peer sends the address inSDP (Session Description Protocol) to the first communications peer aspart of a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling exchange.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the relay is a TURN (TraversalUsing Relays around NAT) server.
 6. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: receiving, by the second communications peer, aresponse from the first communications peer and refining said relayselection based on information learned from the response; and sending,by the second communications peer to the first communications peer, oneof an update or a re-invite including an address of a new selectedrelay, if the new selected relay is different from the previouslyselected relay.
 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein theinformation includes an IP address of the first communications peer. 8.The method according to claim 1, wherein the method automaticallycontrols the in-bound traffic from the first communications peer to thesecond communications peer pre-call or mid-call.
 9. The method accordingto claim 8, wherein, if a change in network conditions is determinedmid-call, the second communications peer repeats said selecting based ona new input from the historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem and sends one of an update or a re-invite to the firstcommunications peer with another address of a new selected relay, if thenew selected relay is different from the previously selected relay. 10.The method according to claim 1, wherein path quality assessments areperformed separately for one or more portions of the path, and whereinthe path quality assessments are concatenated for a basis of a pathselection decision.
 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein pathquality assessments are preformed by one of the second communicationspeer or a system interacting with the second communications peer for aportion of the path from the second communications peer to the relay,and wherein path quality assessments are performed by one of the firstcommunications peer or a system interacting with the firstcommunications peer for a portion of the path from the firstcommunications peer to the relay.
 12. A method of automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic from a first communications peer to asecond communications peer based on an input received from a historicalpath quality assessment and prediction system, the method comprising:automatically setting-up, by the second communications peer, one or morerelays; sending, by the second communications peer to the firstcommunications peer, a transport address of the one or more relays andone or more local addresses for direct communications, per anInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism; nominating, bythe second communications peer, a candidate pair based on the inputreceived from the historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem; and indicating, by the second communications peer, the nominatedcandidate pair with a flag using the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism.
 13. The method according to claim 12,wherein the input received from the historical path quality assessmentand prediction system is derived from one or more of historicalmeasurements, policy, assessments, and selection algorithms.
 14. Themethod according to claim 12, wherein one or more of the relays is aTURN (Traversal Using Relays around NAT) server.
 15. The methodaccording to claim 12, further comprising: sending, by the secondcommunications peer to the first communications peer, one of an updateor a re-invite including a transport address of the selected relay. 16.The method according to claim 12, wherein the method automaticallycontrols the in-bound traffic from the first communications peer to thesecond communications peer pre-call or mid-call.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 16, wherein, if a change in network conditions isdetermined mid-call, the second communications peer sends one of anupdate or a re-invite, which restarts the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism, to the first communications peer, and thesecond communications peer nominates a new candidate pair based on a newinput from the historical path quality assessment and prediction system,wherein the new candidate pair is one of a same candidate pair or adifferent candidate pair.
 18. The method according to claim 17, furthercomprising: maintaining flow of media between the first communicationspeer and the second communications peer until the different candidatepair is nominated by the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)mechanism; and switching media flow to a new path when the differentcandidate pair is nominated by the Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) mechanism.
 19. The method according to claim 18,wherein the switching of the media flow to the new path is seamless. 20.A method of automatically controlling traffic between a firstcommunications peer and a second communications peer, the methodcomprising: separately performing path quality assessments for one ormore portions of a path; concatenating the path quality assessments,wherein the path quality assessments include one or more quality metricsthat are indicated in an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)mechanism; and making a path selection decision based on theconcatenated path quality assessments.
 21. The method according to claim20, further comprising: selecting an Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) candidate pair based on the path selection decision.22. The method according to claim 20, wherein path quality assessmentsare performed by one of the second communications peer or a systeminteracting with the second communications peer for a portion of thepath between the second communications peer and a relay, and whereinpath quality assessments are performed by one of the firstcommunications peer or a system interacting with the firstcommunications peer for a portion of the path between the firstcommunications peer and the relay.
 23. The method according to claim 20,wherein the indication in the Interactive Connectivity Establishment(ICE) mechanism is in an ICE candidate priority field.
 24. The methodaccording to claim 20, further comprising: sending, by the secondcommunications peer to the first communications peer, one of an updateor a re-invite including a transport address associated with the pathselection decision.
 25. A system for automatically controlling in-boundtraffic between communications peers, the system comprising: a firstcommunications peer; a second communications peer; and a historical pathquality assessment and prediction system, wherein the secondcommunications peer automatically controls in-bound traffic from thefirst communications peer to the second communications peer based on aninput from the historical path quality assessment and prediction system.26. The system according to claim 25, wherein the second communicationspeer selects a path through a relay based on the input from thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system, and whereinthe second communications peer requests allocation of the relay andsends an address of the selected relay to the first communications peer.27. The system according to claim 25, wherein the input received fromthe historical path quality assessment and prediction system is derivedfrom one or more of historical measurements, policy, assessments, andselection algorithms.
 28. The system according to claim 25, wherein pathquality assessments are performed by one of the second communicationspeer and a system interacting with the second communications peer. 29.The system according to claim 26, wherein the relay is a TURN (TraversalUsing Relays around NAT) server.
 30. A system for automaticallycontrolling in-bound traffic between communications peers based on aninput received from a historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem, the system comprising: a first communications peer; a secondcommunications peer; and a historical path quality assessment andprediction system, wherein the second communications peer automaticallysets-up one or more relays and sends a transport address of the one ormore relays per an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)mechanism and one or more local addresses for direct communications tothe first communications peer, and wherein the second communicationspeer nominates a candidate pair based on the input received from thehistorical path quality assessment and prediction system and indicatesthe nominated candidate pair with a flag using the InteractiveConnectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism.
 31. A system forautomatically controlling traffic between communications peers, thesystem comprising: a first communications peer; a first historical pathquality assessment and prediction system that performs path qualityassessments for a first portion of one or more paths; a secondcommunications peer; and a second historical path quality assessment andprediction system that performs path quality assessments for a secondportion of the one or more paths, wherein the second communications peerconcatenates the path quality assessments, wherein the path qualityassessments include one or more quality metrics that are indicated in anInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) mechanism, and wherein thesecond communications peer makes a path selection decision based on theconcatenated path quality assessments.
 32. The system according to claim31, wherein the second historical path quality assessment and predictionsystem performs the path quality assessments for a portion of the pathbetween the second communications peer and the relay, and wherein thefirst historical path quality assessment and prediction system performsthe path quality assessments for a portion of the path between the firstcommunications peer and the relay.